Good morning everyone, and welcome to Bravida Q2's report 2022. Yet another solid report that are going to be presented by Åsa and myself. I think most of you know us from before. I've been CEO since 2015. Åsa, you started in?
I started in 2019.
2019, yes. Welcome to this presentation, and today's agenda is that we will start with our position in the Nordic market, follow up with some numbers from the Q2 of course, and then Åsa will take you through the different countries, and then we end with a summary and a Q&A session. Again, warmly welcome to this presentation. We start with our position in the Nordic market, and maybe that is more important than ever to try to describe what kind of company Bravida actually is. We are in the Nordic countries. Sweden is the biggest market, followed by Norway, Denmark, and then we have Finland as well.
It's quite important to understand that being in different countries in many different places with a lot of different customers, different types of customers, is of course some kind of insurance for us in times like this. First of all, I want to express that we are seeing a good demand for service and a stable demand for installation. You need to understand that we are placed in 450 different addresses, 300 branches, meaning that we have a lot of different local market conditions, whatever the market looks like. Today, the demand is stable.
On LTM basis, we have SEK 23 billion+ in sales, 65,000 customers, and we want to support our customers from early planning phase, do the installation in the new build phase, continue the service renovation, rebuilding, et cetera, and maintain the installation systems. We give the opportunity to our customers to get the possibility to buy the full scope of installation services from Bravida. Many different places, many different customers, many different type of customers. Close to two-thirds of our sales is service renovation and rebuilding, so a very stable business model in times like this. This is how the history looks like, and you can see quite impressive numbers.
CAGR on the sales is 9% since 2015, and actually 10% on the EBITDA during the same period, which is a fantastic track record. Remember, the two last years have been quite challenging due to the pandemic, and still our business model have given us the opportunity together with a lot of skilled people in the organization to deliver an improved result every year. We need to adjust to new time and Bravida, we helps customers develop the full potential of the buildings through service and installation. We bring buildings to life, and we are leading the way to sustainable and resilient society. We want to be, and we are, as I see it, the Nordic leader in sustainable technical solutions.
Again, we want to be partner of our customers from the early planning phase, do the new build installation, do the maintenance and service throughout the whole life cycle period of the buildings, and we want to give the opportunity to the customers to use all our services. That, an example of these services is, for example, that we are supporting the customers to use less energy, which is more and more important depending on the high energy prices. We are helping them to use other types of energy sources, and we are also giving them service that are valid for the new time. For example, EV chargers for the electric cars, et cetera.
Leading provider of sustainable technical solutions for buildings, and every customer have the access to the entire offering, life cycle perspective for every buildings, and we want to be and stay as the leader in the sustainability area in this sector as well. Going into the Q2 numbers and the market outlook. Still, we see a good demand for service as well as installation. We see definitely a growing demand for sustainability, sustainable and energy efficient solutions. That has been quite low before that, but the trend is clear. The willingness from our customers to invest to reduce the energy cost is improving. We see definitely a lower risk for material shortages.
We haven't seen a lot of this, actually the last quarters, and I think that is the reason because we are the market leader in three out of four markets. We are first in line to get the material from our suppliers, and we have a really tight partnership with many of the suppliers that are helping us to get the material. That is the same partnership who is helping us together with our suppliers, some of the suppliers, to make sure that we are doing everything we can to not get the material increases that the rest of the market gets. Of course, we see some uncertain times, increasing interest rates and inflation, and that will of course impact the market in some way.
On the other hand, we see decreasing raw material prices that will probably take down, or most likely take down the material prices going ahead as well. Overall, we now have a strong demand, we have a record high order backlog, so I think we have a really strong, good position for the coming quarters as well. The highlights from the quarter, first, it's very great to see that the service growth is 14%. On the other hand, the installation growth actually is higher, that is 17%. As you know, we want to change the mix over time, but we don't want to change the mix because we are having a slower growth on the installation. We need to take the advantage of the market, so as long as we can grow both installation service, that is good.
Over time, we want to change the mix a bit, so we have more service than installation. We see organic growth at 8%, very good number. Order intake up 9%, and we can see that it's improving in Norway, Denmark, and Finland, and we have a record high order backlog. It's close to SEK 17.5 billion. The margin is stable at 5.9%, and the cash flow was SEK 62 million. Very happy to announce that the lost time injury frequencies has improved, and it's now down to 7.4% in the group. Our own work with sustainability is continuing, and in this quarter, 65% of all vehicles that we have been ordering has been electrical. 65% is electrical, which is one way for us to improve our sustainable footprint.
Overall, net sales is up 60%, order backlog increases with SEK 100 million in the quarter, stable margin 5.9%, and cash conversion at 80%. If we look at the bridge on the sales, we see that close to SEK 500 million is coming from organic growth. Another SEK 300 million+ is coming from our acquisitions, and then we have some currency effects around 2% as well. Organic growth in Norway and Denmark, we have a negative growth in Finland, and that is because quite tough comparable figures from last year where we grew the Finnish business a lot. Still a very good development in Finland. Overall, a very solid development in the quarter and 16%+ .
If we look at the EBITDA, 376 million compared to 327 million, stable margin, and we can see that the margin is improving in Finland, and it is unchanged in Sweden and Denmark, and slightly lower in Norway, depending on, and also we'll come back to this, some change in the mix, depending on between service and installation, and some higher costs for sick leave in the quarter. When you look at the numbers and you see the margin, 5.9%, you all know that we are not adjusting for the investments we are doing. In the quarter, we have been spending 22 million in non-recurring costs for implementing the new digital solutions and systems needed to realize the business plan the coming years.
If we take that into consideration, we have actually improved the margin, but we are not adjusting for those things. SEK 22 million in the quarter, and so far SEK 35 million the first half year. And as you see at the last bullet on this slide, the digital initiatives, including initiatives improving the service business, will be around SEK 80 million-SEK 100 million this year. And driving the business plan forward is of course important for us to make sure that we have a great company even tomorrow, but this is driving the administrative expenses for the moment. And we will probably see an improved margin due to this in the late 2023.
Today, we have the cost, and we have some increased recurring costs for strengthening the IT platform, digital development capabilities, an increased sustainability focus, and we also have strengthened our HR focus. That is actually, of course, very important for us when we have 12,500 employees. We also see some initial costs for investment in the new businesses. We are hiring new type of talents, resources, competencies to make sure that we are gaining market share in the Technical Facility Management, but also building automation. Those areas are expected, as I said, to add positively to the margin in the end of 2023. Those initiatives is going developing in a positive way.
For example, we can mention a Pan-Nordic technical facility agreement with Schneider Electric, where we are providing over 20 different type of services, technical services to the customers throughout the Nordics. Very exciting to see what we can do in this area. The building automation definitely binds all our different services together. When we come to the order intake and order backlog, you can see a very stable, positive development on this chart. The order backlog is growing in the quarter in Sweden and Finland. The order backlog increased by 17% year-on-year, and again, on a record high level. I have said that I don't know how many quarters in a row I've said a record high level.
We have a really strong position going forward, and we really know what to do the coming quarters. The order intake increased 9%, and we see a growth in Norway, Denmark, and Finland. Sustainability, as I mentioned before, the LTIFR, Lost Time Injury Frequencies, has improved, maybe the most important KPI for all our employees and for our customers as well, of course. We see a decline in injury numbers on group level with 15%, and it's especially improving in Sweden and Denmark. Norway are already on a very good level. Finland has improved the last year as well. Our focus on our employees' safety has given some good result. Ordered electrical vehicles, 65% of total vehicles, which is improving.
I think the last quarter it was 57%, and we will very soon see that we are only buying electric cars. We still see some challenges that we don't get those cars delivered, impacting the CO2 emissions from vehicles, which is up 0.1%. If we do this calculation in relation to sales, we can see that we have decreased the number with 4.3%. Some positive numbers, and we still have plenty of things to do to make sure that our own CO2 emissions go down. That will be helping us when we get those cars delivered. I want to tell you something about Bravida GreenHub, which is our way of delivering fossil-free services to our customers in the city centers.
It's clear that we were very early with this kind of offer to the market. Now, the last quarter, we can clearly see that the customers are actually ready and changing their way to buy services from us. It's getting more and more important for the customers to actually buy services in a fossil-free way. The growth, the positive trend in this last quarter has been, the change is big, I can say. We have signed some service agreements with several major companies in the city centers, mainly in Sweden. We see that these trends are some kind of different if we compare the different companies, but the trend is clear: the interest for this kind of services is growing. The customer offerings includes all Bravida current technical solutions.
It's enabled customers to reduce energy consumptions in their properties and to improve the indoor climate at the same time. Our transport to customers is done 100% fossil free. Vehicles is preferably bicycles and electrical mopeds. We have in these type of services, strong focus on recycling as well. This is growing in the Nordic countries. I think it's really great to see. I'm happy to see that we are the one who is entering into new areas. We are leading the sustainable development in the industry, and we are actually a bit ahead of the customers, a way of procure the services from us. Now we see a clear change. It's going to be really interesting to follow this, the coming quarters as well.
Last from my side, the acquisitions 2022, we have been very active on the acquisition side. We have done 21 acquisitions so far in 2022, adding SEK 1.66 billion in sales. We still see a strong pipeline. Acquisitions are still at attractive multiples, and we also see and argue that their prices will probably come down a bit because that's how the market works. At the same time, I will say that you can't expect the same pace of acquisitions the last period of this year. We will definitely continue to do acquisitions in the same way as we have done for the last years.
We still have a strong balance sheet, pipeline is strong, and we will use the opportunities that will arise in this market going ahead. That said, I hand over to Åsa and the performance in the different countries.
Thank you, Mattias. I will guide you through our countries, and we will start with Sweden, where we grew the top line with 6% this quarter to SEK 3.3 billion. The growth year to date was also 6%. The organic growth was flat, so the growth came from acquisitions. It is different in the different regions in Sweden. We can see in the northern part, we have a strong organic growth, and then it is slower in the Stockholm area and also in the larger cities in the south. In Stockholm, we had a large project last year that also gives us high comparable figures. The EBITDA margin and I should also say that the growth here is coming both from service and installation.
EBITDA margin was unchanged at 6.5% in the quarter and also unchanged year to date. The order intake was almost unchanged also at SEK 3.5 billion. The order intake came mainly from installation. The order backlog increased by SEK 221 million this quarter and ended up at SEK 9.5 billion. Norway had a really strong growth in sales, 36% in the quarter and 20% year to date. Here we got some help from the currency. In local currency, we grew by 31% in the quarter. The growth came mainly from installation in this quarter, and installation grew by more than 55%. Organic growth was also high, 27%, and acquisition grew by 4%.
We had a bit lower EBITDA margin in this quarter, as Mattias said, at 5.7% compared to 6.4%, and this is explained mainly by this change or this shift in the sales mix towards installation. Installation projects are, in total, they have a lower margin than service. Adding to that, we also had some lower performing projects in Norway during this quarter. That is affecting the margin as well. As Mattias said, the cost for sick leave was higher. In Norway, we have the highest sick leave in the countries still. It is coming down, and it's not higher than it was last quarter or last year. Last year, we got compensated for the sick leave by the government, and we don't get that this year.
That's the main reason for the lower margin. Order intake, 22%, and coming both from service and installation. Order backlog, a strong +58% increase year- on- year. Denmark also had a strong growth in sales, growing in the quarter by 29%. Denmark had some help from the currency if you look in Swedish krona. In local currency, the growth was 24%. Here, the growth came from both service and installation, but it's mainly installation, and installation was growing by 28%. EBITDA margin was unchanged at 5%. Order intake, 21% during the quarter and 39% year to date. Here, we got some help also from the currency. In local currency, the order intake was 5% in the quarter.
The order intake is mostly small and mid-sized project, but we got one large order here in Denmark at SEK 150 million, adding to the order backlog this quarter. Order backlog was plus growing at 31% year-on-year, so very strong. Moving to Finland. In Finland, we had a growth in sales by 4%. This was all due to currency, actually, so it was flat otherwise. The organic growth was -16%, and the growth from acquisition was +16%. The negative organic growth is coming from this, that we last year had a large project with Wärtsilä that was high in production, and also that we are pretty picky when we are selecting projects in Finland.
We want to continue this good journey that they are on now improving the margins. EBITDA margin then improved to 5% compared to 4% last year in the quarter, and also improved year to date to 4.3% from 3.3%. We're very happy to see that the work that they do in Finland, improving the margins and improving the business actually shows result. Order intake in the quarter was +32%, 30% year to date. Here, we also had some currency effects, so in the quarter in local currency, the order intake was 19%. The order backlog was +14% and as I should also said that the order intake is mostly service, coming from service in Finland.
The order backlog was + 14% year-on-year, and in local currency, it was 8%. The order backlog also increased during the quarter. Moving on to the financial position. If we look at the operating cash flow, it was a bit lower this quarter compared to last year. It is due to a lower working capital, and this is mainly, I would say, a timing effect, depending on when we are paying out accounts payable, you know, before or after the quarter ends. We also had some additional tax payment this quarter and increased inventories a little bit where we are actually paying some material in advance to make sure that we have components.
This is mainly a timing issue. It looks a bit better if you look at the year to date figures. We are SEK 404 million compared to SEK 461 million. This lower operating cash flow in the quarter is also reflected in the cash conversion. Cash conversion was 80% LTM this quarter compared to 90% last year. The net debt EBITDA is still on a low level, same level as last year on 0.9x. Last but not least, our financial targets. We have an EBITDA margin target on 7% or more than 7%. If you look at the LTM figures, we are on 6.8%.
Cash conversion should be more than 100%, and as I just told you, it's on 80% right now. Net debt EBITDA ratio should be lower than 2.5 times, and it's on 0.9 at the moment. Our sales growth larger than 5% is our target, and we are now year to date on 13%. The dividend payout should be more than 50% of the net profit, and that's what we paid out for last year. We are on track on that too. That's all for me right now, Mattias.
Okay. Thank you. Just to summarize this presentation and the quarter. Sales increased in all countries, and it's up 16%. Organic growth, 8%. We see organic growth in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Growth from acquisitions is 6%, a very strong first half year. 21 acquisitions has been finalized, and we still see a very strong pipeline going forward. We have the balance sheet to support the M&A story, and we think that there will be a lot of opportunities the coming quarters as well. Increased order backlog, which is of course very good. It is actually up SEK 100 million and yet another quarter with the record high order backlog. Stable margin at 5.9%.
Remember the investments we are doing in the business, adjusting for that, we are actually seeing improving margin. That is the cost for the digital initiatives in the business plan. SEK 22 million in the quarter. We are estimating this to somewhere between SEK 80 million-SEK 100 million for the full year. A solid quarter, fantastic work from all our employees. We're really looking forward to see what we can achieve the coming quarters as well. Saying that, we open up for some Q&As.
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speaker phone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause for a moment to assemble our roster. The first question is from Carl Ragnestam with Nordea. Please go ahead.
Good morning. It's Carl here from Nordea. A few questions from my side. Firstly, in Norway, you of course reported quite strong organic growth, but with margins down a bit here. You mentioned of course the mix effect. When I look at the mix effect, looking at the service here, it's 50% down from 57% last year. I'm not sure if it's the whole explanation to the margin drop or could you help me bridge it year-over-year? Thank you.
Yeah. First there is a change in the mix, definitely. The service business is growing and the margin in service business is really good. Åsa mentioned about the sick leave. The sick leave hasn't gone up, but there is a difference in the cost for sick leave. This year we have been taking the cost. Last year, we got some support for from the government. We can see slight increase of the sick leave in the end of the quarter, but it's not explaining the thing you are asking for. We also are a bit disappointed, both Åsa and myself.
I know the Norwegian management as well thought that they should been able to have slightly higher margin on the installation side, and that hasn't happened yet. Increasing top line should mean a lower administrative cost in the business, but it has been eaten up by some lower margin project that we have seen, and that is something we will work with or on after the vacation because there are some areas in Norway that are not performing in the way Bravida Norway too wants or we want. Overall, Norway is money-wise they are doing their best quarter ever. A lot of positive things, but not everything is perfect, of course. I think that is the explanation.
Very good. It doesn't sound like a quick fix for the margin. I guess it takes some time to get rid of the or to fully deliver on the projects with a lower margin level. Is it right? We'll probably not see a very quick fix to Q3 or.
That is right. I think we have been always trying to explain the margin over volume. The growth in Norway has been quite challenging for a couple of years due to the pandemic, because they have been impacted most by the pandemic. Now it's accelerating, but maybe it's accelerating too quick, which means that we're not able or have the actual possibility to do it in the way we normally can do. I think that is an explanation as well. I think your estimation about it takes longer than a couple of weeks, months to fix it, that's definitely true. On the other hand, a strong order backlog, good contracts in Norway, solid service business with good margins. There are a lot of positive things in Norway. On the other hand, some things we need to work with, that's always the case.
Super. Also on the raw material side, we have seen steel coming down quite a bit. Have you seen other raw materials or components starting to see a decreasing pricing? Also is it fair to assume that we should expect a tailwind from sort of lower input prices in maybe second half? I guess you don't need to revise your contract prices with your customers, right?
It's quite complex as you understand. The situation for now is that we see raw material prices come down. We still see a pressure from suppliers to increase the prices. We are a bit late in the cycle. Still we see pressure to increase the prices from our suppliers at the same time as the raw material prices will go down. A tailwind from that the nearest quarters is not fair to calculate on. At the same time, we see different way of behaving from our supplier side. I mentioned in the CEO word that we are strengthening some of the partnerships with suppliers who are actually partners, and we are working together to keep the cost in control on the material side.
There are some other suppliers who is not acting the way we want them to act, which I really don't understand, and that will of course have some impact on how we work with our suppliers. We are working with the relationships both on the supplier side as well as customer side. This is not the storm, but it is definitely something we work hard with, and that's why we have a really strong purchasing team on central level to take care of this, and I think they are doing a great job. So far, it is in control, but we don't expect lower material prices the next quarter. I expect lower material prices, but it will take some time.
Very good. Also a bit on the market outlook. You seem cautiously optimistic. I mean, it's a lot of discussion around the construction market, the inflation impact on potentially postponed or paused projects. Could you give me your view on that? If you have seen a sort of a worsening situation at the end of quarter or entering Q3, or if it's too early to tell actually, or?
I think it's too early to say or tell. We haven't seen big changes in the demand. We have some areas where we, in Sweden, for example, the Stockholm area and the south part of Sweden. On the other hand, we see increased demand in some other areas. I think that is, as I said in the beginning of this presentation, to be in many different places with a lot of different types of customers, with different types of needs, that actually level out the changes in the market. That is the same when the market goes down. We haven't seen a big change in the market yet. Do I expect a change? Yes, of course.
When we know that things might happen, it's really good to have the strongest order backlog ever, and an experienced management team on all levels. So far, no changes. Then again, close to two-thirds of our sales is service, renovation, and refurbishment, which is of course not apples to apples due to the construction market. Then we are quite late in the cycle. We have the visibility in our order backlog. We are following and measuring the order backlog on not only branch levels, actually cost units levels, so we can do measures that we need to do early and with a very direct, exact. We know where to do it and when to do it. Flexible cost base of course will help us go ahead. As of now, the demand is surprisingly strong, I would say.
Okay.
On top of that, you can actually add new demand for new type of services. The energy price is going up, which of course give an incentive for the market to invest in new type of energy sources and new systems or more energy efficient systems, which we are working with. I think it's some positive impact as well as some things that we will struggle with, of course, in the market. We have a strong position for the moment.
Sounds good. Thank you.
The next question is from Karl-Johan Bonnevier with DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, Mattias and Åsa. I would be very interesting given that we still see this, how to say, surprisingly strong market, what you have seen in your ability to access a quality installer, so to say, to build your operation and continue to grow it. Obviously you have been very good at acquiring companies of late, but also then looking at, say, the organic opportunity to find employees and your own internal trends in employee turnover as well would be interesting in that kind of parameter.
Of course, resources is a bottleneck in the industry, and it has been like that since I started in 1998. I think that is something we have to live with. It hasn't changed, it hasn't improved, and it hasn't worsened. Still a challenge. We are using the acquisition as one way to strengthen our own company, but of course, we're using some kind of different types of subcontractors for specialties, et cetera, as one way to do it. Our own turnover is quite high. I actually don't know the numbers for the second quarter, but in Q1 it was high. We saw slight improvement, maybe. We can't say that it is a trend, but it has gone up.
If that is depending on the pandemic, the people are changing the way how they think about the job, et cetera, we don't know. It's higher. It was higher in 2021 compared to the numbers before the pandemic. Of course, I expect that the questions you ask to me and Åsa here about the market going ahead will of course take down the turnover employees as well. Let's see. It is a bit challenging for the moment, but it is not more challenging today than it was a year ago or a quarter ago.
When you look at, say, wage creepage and the potential for wage cost inflation maybe going into next year more than for this year, what would it be your best take?
We don't know, of course. This year it has been stable. We had the new agreement that are supposed to be negotiated between the parties in the end of this year. Of course, you know this better than I do probably, Karl-Johan . But we expect a higher increase next year compared to the average the last couple of years. That is something we take into consideration when we make our bids on new projects and service offers. But that is just estimates, and it can be some, I guess, everything from 3% up to eight. We don't know. We are planning for the worst case and hoping for the maybe not best in this, a good case for the society and for the industry.
Let's say like this, if you would end up at the high end of that range, it wouldn't mean a disaster for your order backlog where you have signed orders up until today.
If that will be on the high end, that means that we'll get the increases in April next year. The duration of an average project in our portfolio is somewhere around 10 months maybe. The rest of the projects we have put even more cost into the calculation, and very often we have index clauses as well. I think you are right in that guess or estimate, yes.
Excellent. Looking at the strong flow of acquisitions you have had so far during this year and the outlook you are talking about still as a good flow, maybe it's not at the same level. It seems like you are finding a lot of different kind of companies in lots of different areas. Is there any basic underlying assumption of that certain segments you want to get into to get stronger in when you're looking at the acquisitions? Because when I look at the press releases you have sent so far, actually, it seems to be everything everywhere more or less.
I think it's everywhere, yes. Everything, no. We are very, what say, we are thinking very thoroughly through what kind of companies we are acquiring. That's when you mean everything, that could mean plumbing, ventilation, electrical, building automation, et cetera, and that is our core business. We want to improve our market share on things we already are doing. We are not, haven't been doing any adjacencies so far, but we are looking at some adjacencies. It should be very close to what we are doing today, so we can integrate, use the systems, get scale advantages, et cetera. Everywhere, yes. Everything, no. Is there some specific areas we want to buy? Yes, of course.
We try to accelerate our own business plan, our strategy, but I don't want to mention which areas these are. That's up to you and everyone else to read. Because if I say that, everyone is going after the same things that we are doing, because that is something we can see. The things we say, the things we are doing as a market leader, the other ones try to do the same.
Excellent. No, I don't want to pick you until, so you miss out on interesting transactions. Just finally-
No problem.
A quick word on your ambitions within building automation and the FM area. How far you have come down that road?
Of course, when you start a new segment, new business, et cetera, it takes some time before you actually are up to speed. We are still on the starting path, if you can say. We have signed a Pan-Nordic agreement with Schneider Electric that I mentioned before. Technical Facility Management agreement in the Nordic countries, delivering more than 20 different type of services. I think we are one of the few who can actually deliver that type of service to a client like Schneider in this case. We are having a lot of interesting discussions with the customers. Building automation is definitely seen as very positive from our customers as well as the building automation industry because they think we are as a...
Due to the platform we already have in all other different technical segments, adding building automation on top of that is of course an enormous strength. Many of the talented employees in that industry have understood that and wants to come to us, which is very positive, of course.
Excellent. Thank you very much and all the best out there.
Thank you very much, Karl-Johan.
The next question is from Stefan Andersson with SBAB. Please go ahead.
Thank you. A couple of questions. Start with a follow-up there on the material. Just so I don't think you maybe answered the last end of the question that was out there. When it comes to, I mean, you've been pushing the cost increase over the customers rather, well, and if we now see material coming down, do you really expect that you could keep some of that margin, or don't you really have to give that back as well?
I think, first of all, I don't think we should be too optimistic on that we get the price decreases, the coming quarters or this year, maybe. It will take slightly longer time because we are late in the process cycle, so we actually have some push to increase the prices still. As I said before, we don't think that the margin impact on increased prices will be very dramatic for Bravida. Could be impact, definitely, but not a very major one. If I say that, of course, I can't argue that the positive margin effect will be very dramatic either. I think there will be some positive effect on the installation side, which if we have priced the material prices higher than we actually will buy the material for.
On the other hand, on the service side, there is very limited or no impact at all, no matter if it's increased cost or lower cost. I think that is nothing you should put a lot of focus on when you are doing your forecasts.
Oh, okay, thank you. On the M&A side, you're saying that you don't expect the same activity as in the first half. Looking at your ambitions and your balance sheet, I would guess that this is not something you yourself are holding back. It's rather finding the right targets and closing the deals. Is that correct? First question, and the second question, I'm not gonna name any other company, but there's a competitor of yours that I talked to recently that complained a little bit about finding targets actually in the absolute niche of what you're doing, and they started to buy things a little bit broader. My question is how do you see. That's the second part of the question. How do you see.
You're talking about a good pipeline, but I mean you have the means to buy more. Is it a little bit hard to find targets? Third part of that question, isn't it time to start looking at a new market outside of the Nordics, given your size, and how successful you've been in the Nordics? If so, where, what market would that be?
Let's see if I can answer all of these in one try. Otherwise we'll have to come back, Stefan. If we start with the number of possible targets on the acquisition side, I would say that maybe it's more, that we think our M&A philosophy is better than someone else. We have really strong belief in our way of doing acquisitions to buy good companies where we see synergies. 1 + 1 can be more than 2. I think one reason might be that we are not paying with shares, which is maybe why we still don't have that to explain. It's easy when the share price always go up and up, but when we have a market like this that is a bit more uncertain, maybe, I don't know.
We have a good pipeline, and we want to do acquisitions where we can strengthen the company we are acquiring, and they can help us to improve Bravida. Together, we are merging the companies, we are doing the integration, and create a better group. When it comes to that we say that you can't expect the same pace on acquisitions, H2 like H1, you should read it more, understand it more like the pace in H1 has been extraordinarily good. We have been able to sign a lot of deals that we think are good for us to create value. It's not that we want to adjust the pace, we just want to adjusting the expectations. We will continue to do acquisitions.
We will continue to do acquisitions in the way we have been doing, and we have the balance sheet supporting that. If we can do the same amount in H2, we will do it. I think it's just a way to say that we will continue, but it will probably be slightly lower than first half year because the first half year it has been a very positive outcome, I would say. When it comes to acquisition outside Nordics, that is not due to our plan yet. We still have a very fragmented market, and we still see the possibilities to do acquisitions. 11% market share in Sweden, lower in all the other countries, so plenty of deals to do so far. Of course, we are ready.
We are looking at slightly bigger acquisitions as well. Again, we always think about, is it good for our owners, our own business? Is it creating a better Bravida than before? If we think that is the case, then we can do the acquisition, and hopefully we can do slightly bigger as well because we have a very strong balance sheet supporting that. No plans today to go outside Nordics, but we will continue what we've done so far, and maybe, hopefully we can find something bigger as well.
Okay, good. I guess following up on the comment you had there on the very strong balance sheet. You have a mandate to repurchasing shares. What would need to happen for you to act on that mandate?
We see what you asked for that we don't see today that we can't do any acquisitions, then we can start to think about it. As long as we can buy companies five, six, seven times EBITDA, why buy ourselves on a higher multiple?
Yeah. If the pace you see now is the pace you're expecting right now, is that enough for you to get closer to your leverage target?
Probably not, but I think we need to have space ammunitions to do slightly bigger as well, because sometimes you get the opportunity, then it's very good to have the space of doing that, due to the leverage topic as well. We will not reach the leverage if we continue to do acquisition as we are doing for now. I think that we will try to use that for slightly a bigger target if possible. Otherwise, we of course need to sit down and talk with the board, discuss, but we are not there today.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you. My final question is on the order backlog. One of the bigger projects you have there is SEK 2 billion in Stockholm, if I remember correctly. When in time do you expect that one to be up? I mean, I know it's still you're involved and you're working on it right now, but it's been a slower pace. When do you expect in volumes in that? I fully understand it's difficult to guess given how it's been delayed and so on, but what's your best guess right now?
Best guess is actually I spoke to Per Andersson, who's in charge for this morning, at the coffee machine. Best guess is that we start April next year, on a slightly more, yeah, on site starting the production. That's the plan now, and hopefully we can do that. We are ready when our customer is ready.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you, Stefan.
The next question is from Ben Wild with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. It's just one from me left, and it's focused on how the market is reacting to some soft demand you spoke about in Stockholm and southern Sweden. Are you seeing at the moment higher pricing risk given the material price inflation that's being put through the system? And how are you managing the kind of project pricing risk given the price volatility of materials? Thank you.
Good morning, and hi, Ben. No, I think when we say it's a lower activity in the Stockholm market in south part of Sweden, I think that's quite natural as well because they were having a very high activity last year. Having the same high activity in all different areas at the same time, it has never happened, and it will never happen. Regarding the material price increases connected to that question, I think that maybe there can be an explanation that we are taking the higher cost into our calculation, meaning that we have been doing that since last summer. Maybe that can be an explanation why we have slightly lower activity right now.
We are working in the same way in Stockholm and south as well as we do in north. We are putting in higher costs in the calculations. I don't see there is a different way of seeing those numbers in those areas. I'm really not sure if I understood your question, but not a higher risk in those areas, I would say.
I guess my question is focused on, are you being more selective on projects that you're going for, given the greater competition for the projects and the price volatility of the materials underlying?
Yeah. Definitely, yes. We're not only due to those things you mentioned, we are also more selective due to what type of customers we want to work with in this type of market conditions because the customers has to be able to pay our invoices next summer as well. As well as the customers think it's a good idea to work with Bravida. We are very selective what kind of projects, how we price the risk, and what kind of customers we are working together with. Definitely more selective, yes.
Thank you very much. That was everything from me.
Thanks.
Again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. There are no more questions registered at this time. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to the speakers for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much for everyone. Thank you for listening and watching our presentation. Now, we will take a well-deserved holiday or vacation.
It'll be very nice.
Yeah. Thank you very much. We have some more meetings today, but then we will go home to our families and enjoy the summer and enjoy a really good report.
Yes, we will. Have a nice summer, you too.
Yes, definitely. Have a nice summer, and see you soon. Bye.
Bye-bye.